Easy Ways to Manage Your Whole Home in Zones

Dec 29, 2015 02:07AM
● By Family Features

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(Family Features) You’ve been taught from childhood to turn off the lights when you leave a room to save energy and money. Now, technology is allowing homeowners to apply those years of training to managing energy consumption – and comfort – on a room-by-room basis throughout the house.

This new approach to managing your home allows you to customize nearly every aspect of a room’s environment independently from other parts of the house, in some cases, even when you’re miles away. You can adjust lighting, music and even the temperature using the right technology-enabled devices.

Options to create ambiance
Nothing sets a mood quite like music. Your home audio system may be perfect when you’re home alone, but when guests fill every room, a more custom approach is in order. For example, the volume may be louder to overcome the commotion of the kitchen, while a lower decibel provides a gentle backdrop to conversation in the living room. Where the kids are congregated, you can play a different soundtrack entirely.

Likewise, there are dozens of reasons to change the lighting from room to room. Kids shuffle from room to room and guests gravitate to different parts of the house, or you may simply want to give the appearance that someone is home when you’re on the road. These are all good reasons to explore a system that lets you adjust your home’s lighting from a single location.

Zoned climate control
The approach to heating and cooling homes has evolved dramatically through the years as well. Now, the latest technology makes it possible to combine the advantages of cooling and heating systems with the benefits of more localized climate settings. Individualized zone control allows homeowners to save money while offering the flexibility to choose which rooms they want to cool and heat.

“Cooling or heating unused areas of your home means using less energy,” said Mike Smith, senior marketing manager, residential, Mitsubishi Electric US, Inc. Cooling & Heating Division. “By creating zones, homeowners can feel confident that they are not only saving money, but living smarter and more comfortably.”

Options, such as Mitsubishi Electric’s zoned Diamond Comfort System, create efficient, whole-home cooling and heating solutions, offering year-round comfort control room-by-room. The whisper-quiet units also feature an anti-allergen filtration system to reduce allergens, dust, pollen, viruses and bacteria in the home. Learn more at MitsubishiComfort.com.

Remote management
One of the greatest advantages of the new zoned approach to home management is the ability to adjust each room remotely. Smartphones have taken that function to a whole new level, with apps that let homeowners control virtually any aspect of the home from a remote location, whether down the hall or across the country.

For example, the kumo cloud smart controls app integrates seamlessly with Mitsubishi Electric systems allowing the homeowner to control the temperature of each room in the house from anywhere. The tool takes pre-programmed thermostats to a whole new level with greater flexibility, such as the ability to boost the heat when you’re home earlier than planned. Learn more about the app, which is also compatible with other devices, at MitsubishiComfort.com.